A milestone for Atlantic City's arts and culture scene.

City leaders celebrated the unveiling of the 100th mural commissioned by the AC Arts Foundation.

For the last seven years.

Artists have lent their talents to the city, creating massive murals with the goal of revitalizing communities and bringing neighborhoods together.

Ted Goldberg spoke to the artist behind Mural Number 100 and learned how the city inspired her work.

Atlantic City's newest mural means to honor people who live there.

They're always dreaming about ways to make the space more inviting way to like, really like center Atlantic City and the culture that's here and like, kind of shine a light on, like the beauty that does exist here.

Artist Manuela Guillén painted this mural on the side of the restaurant.

Cardinal and planned it down to the very verb tense used in the writing, which reads Always dreaming, always growing.

And I wanted the words to kind of have the I and je the continuation that we're always going to dream.

Always, girl.

Right now and right after and forever.

Guillén worked in Aces casinos between high school and college.

Meeting a diverse group of people along the way.

It was always great to like in the back and like hear the different languages and have, you know like kind of have some exchange of culture.

I have a Latin background, like I had friends from like South Asia to Haiti's and like, we would all, like, sometimes eat together and have food.

When she paints murals, Guillén says she wants to represent the people who will look at them.

While it would be nice to like, have art that is straight from my sketchbook.

I like to obviously be considerate and think of the people in the space and who are going to witness this.

So a lot of people do see the work and they feel seen, They feel they feel represented.

They feel like it was made for them and not like, you know, the tourist community.

That representation includes even the insects that buzz around the garden outside of Cardinal.

They actually plant a lot of native flowers so that a lot of these cute critters can come by and have stuff to survive with.

I was literally catching bugs all day and at first I wasn't going to add the bugs.

I was like, You know what?

This is their home too.

So I should definitely add I should add all of that.

Guillén's contribution marks the 100th mural commissioned by the Atlantic City Arts Foundation since 2017.

Executive director Michael Atkin says these works have made a big difference citywide.

Art has a.

Tremendous capacity to bring people together.

We feel that it's very important to promote public arts because they help revitalize and strengthen communities and it helps give us a sense of place and belonging.

People who came to this celebration agree.

Sometimes it takes like the bad things about the city and puts like such a beautiful light on it.

You know, everybody wants to talk about the bad, but we're forcing people to look at the good and then like talk about it.

So it's really awesome.

I feel like.

If I stop and see something, I feel like the kids are even stopping and looking and reading the quotes that are on the walls.

They might not know who the artist is themself, but I think that the paintings and the murals and the quotes are inspiring.

In addition to the 100th mural by the AC Arts Foundation, Gillen also painted their 99th.

She says it was an honor to do both of them.

It's like a full circle for me right now.

Like ten years ago, I was making art here for free, for the fun of it.

And, you know, I gain I gain so much skills and like practices and like, just different types of growth I've had as an artist.

But to have it now, like, I get asked to do the hundredth mural.

I mean, it really meant a lot to me.

I honestly feel like I really I was really speechless.

So how many more murals should we expect to pop up?

I'm so glad that we got to 100 and let's go for another 100 and see.

So the next time you're in Atlantic City, keep an eye out for one of these massive pieces of art along the city streets.

What you see in AC might just surprise you.

In Atlantic City, I'm Ted Goldberg.

NJ Spotlight News.